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Not applicable
1. Field of the Invention
Pseudofolliculitis is a known condition, especially prevalent in persons having beards with a strong tendency to hair curling. It evinces itself after repeated beard shaving by inward growth of the beard hair into the skin and the subsequent formation of skin bumps with accompanying infection and eruptions.
It is a serious condition affecting a significant number of people, especially of African or Mediterranean descent, and has best been treated by restricting shaving by affected person.
Various treatments have been proposed for the amelioration of the adverse effect. These include U.S. Pat. No. 4,525,344, showing the use of a skin and beard conditioning compound, which is applied as part of the beard softening process (lathering) as a shaving aid. This patent is typical of the prior art in showing the use of a conditioning oil during the course of shaving.
Natural oils as a skin treatment providing a moist skin, including specifically the use of apricot kernel oil, avocado kernel oil and certain vitamins, including vitamin A, are shown in example in U.S. Pat. No. 4,505,902 or U.S. Pat. No. 4,201,235.
Various cosmetic preparations have been proposed utilizing fine oat flour as a binding and stabilizing agent; these include U.S. Pat. No. 4,014,995, and earlier patents showing the use of similar flours or pulverized plant substances as cohesion agents, such as U.S. Pat. No. 2,876,164 for soybean flour, U.S. Pat. No. 4,569,839 teaching generally pulverized plant substances, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,369,180 teaching cornstarch or cosmetic clay. In each of the patents the principal teaching is that the compound provides a binding agent performing a facial pack. There has been a continual use of oat flour dating back to U.S. Pat. No. 1,550,026, in which oat flour is shown as a binding agent for applying a skin astringent.
The emphasis in the prior art has been upon the teaching of an oil based softener for use as a shaving aid to ease the cutting of the beard.
2. General Background of the Invention
The invention discloses a continuing skin treatment for topical application to the skin for amelioration and prevention of pseudofolliculitis. The invention involves the repeated application of a petroleum jelly based mixture which contains, in combination, a skin astringent, a skin softening emollient oil and an oil designed to produce a relative stiffening of hair in the presence of the emollient oils. The combination is intended to simultaneously;
a) provide a mild astringent effect to the skin, causing an opening effect on the pores;
b) provide a softening effect to the epidermal surface of the skin which is localized to the epidermal surface and which is specifically not equally seen in the hair follicles within the skin;
c) provide a strengthening or stiffening effect to the hair follicles to counteract residual softening effects of the astringent and the emolument oils.
In combination, the compound provides a continuing skin and hair tone environment in which the resistance of the skin to eruption of naturally curly hair is significantly reduced and at the same time the tendency of the hair to recurl and repenetrate is also reduced.
The material itself is not a shaving aid; in fact, to an extent it resists the effect of shaving in that it tends to stiffen the hairs of the beard, whereas a shaving aid is intended to soften the same. Rather, the material is a continuing skin treatment and is preferably applied by being massaged into the skin for a period of up to three days without shaving and then by being applied immediately prior to and then immediately after shaving. The material is additionally not a surface treatment in that it is massaged until it is absorbed into the skin and no excess material is left upon the skin.
It is therefore an object of the invention to disclose a compound of particular utility reducing the effects of pseudofolliculitis.
It is a further object of the invention to disclose a continuing skin treatment which reduces the incidence of pseudofolliculitis in an individual who is continually shaving.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a skin treatment which reduces the tendency of curly beard hairs to recurl into the skin.
It is a further object of the invention to disclose a skin treatment that reduces the incidence of naturally curly beard hairs from being trapped within the pores of the skin.
It is a further object of the invention to disclose a continuing skin treatment, reducing the effects of pseudofolliculitis, which may be applied to ameliorate the otherwise deleterious effect of normal shaving aids.